


Fall Taken

by Davechicken



Series: Kylux - Fluff & Angst [132]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 20:32:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9017398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: Kylo takes the fall for Hux. Hux... isn't sure how he feels about that.





	

The failure had been Hux’s. It had been _his_ idea, and he’d convinced Kylo to go ahead with it. It had _not_ been for him to take the fall, and yet…

Hux had found his tongue silenced in the audience hall. Kylo _never_ used the Force against him, not against his will. It was a violation in the extreme, and yet… he’d done it to stop Hux from volunteering the information and taking the reprimand.

He’d taken the fall for him. 

Somehow, that… that had felt even more real than any whispered love-confessions. It was one thing to say ‘I love you’ whilst you tugged someone’s nipples or rode their dick, it was another to outright take the fall for someone. To openly accept reprimand and punishment, for no reason other than compassion.

No one… no one has ever done that for him. Hux was usually the one, in the Academy, snitching on his peers. Which was probably why no one would ever have his corner, because he was aggressively holding it away from everyone else. 

No one has ever… has ever cared so much about him…

Hux didn’t know what Kylo’s punishment would entail. He’s only ever been reprimanded _once_ , and that was over the catastrophic shit-stream that had been the fall of the Starkiller. He’d not been alone in his sanctions following that fallout. Multiple people had their asses firmly kicked, and Hux had not liked it in the slightest.

The fact he was being reprimanded at _all_ was worse than any discomfort of the situation. Worse than the indelible black mark on his permanent record. Knowing he _deserved it_  was the ultimate shame. 

He’d suspected it would be like that for Kylo. 

Instead, the man limps back into their rooms. He _never_ shows physical weakness if he can help it, which means…

“Kylo! Are you hurt?”  


“I’ll live,” the man says, and drops his helmet onto the table. His hands grip the back of a seat, and he’s clearly fighting a wave of something intense.   


Hux leaps over to his side, throwing himself under his arm for support. Kylo’s weight slumps all in one go, and Hux is struggling to counterpoint his size against his own centre of gravity. He hears a tiny whimper of worry, and he _knows_ Kylo will be fighting himself to… 

“Okay, stop right now. You took this hit for me, so you damn well let me patch you back up, and none of that macho bullshit. Alright? I owe you.”  


Kylo thinks about fighting, but then relents. He curls his arm around Hux’s shoulders, and lets himself be eased through and onto the bed. Hux even allows him on with the boots, but only because he’s stripping him of them the minute his ass and head land safely on the mattress.

“I’m alright. I just need to sleep it off.”  


“Kylo…”  


“I mean it, it’s fine, it’s nothing. I’m used to it.”  


“ _Kylo_.”  


“Hux?”  


“What…?” He finds when the space is there for the question, he’s much too afraid of the answer to know. Pausing, on his knees, with Kylo’s ankles around his head. He can’t see his face, but… he can imagine the expression.  


“It’s just training,” Kylo says, almost smoothly. “I need it to progress.”  


“You’re in pain.”  


“Pain is power. If I stop every time I am hurt, I will fail. I have to learn to use it, and…”  


Hux leaps onto the bed, grabbing Kylo’s face in his hands. He pushes their foreheads together, wishing he had the gift to leech out the hurt. “No.”

“It’s the Dark Side, Hux,” Kylo explains, though his voice sounds tired. “Pain is power. Passion. Something.”  


“Something?” He doesn’t want to sound like a hysterical house-husband, but he sort of is. “You don’t even know?”  


“I’m tired,” Kylo complains. “It was hard. I just… can I sleep it off?”  


“Are you - are you hurt?”  


“Nothing sleep won’t fix.”  


“ _Are you injured_?” Hux pushes.  


“…no. It’s. It’s all internal. There’s no outward lacerations, and no Bacta will help me. Just… rest. And maybe analgesics in the morning.”  


Hux nods, and starts to gently ease the rest of Kylo’s clothing off him. His fingers stroke soothingly where they reach his skin, and he wonders if the Leader has done any permanent, internal injury to his Knight. He’d hate himself even more if so. Off goes the shirt, then the pants, and before long he’s bundling Kylo in the comforter. 

Kylo always likes to be swaddled in bedding when he’s feeling low. Hux figured this out upon seeing Kylo burrito himself when sad, and now he makes sure he tucks things snugly around him when he’s suffering. Kylo’s hands peek over the top, and Hux spoons up into his padded ass.

“This doesn’t hurt, does it?”  


“Not enough to ask you to stop.”   


Honest, at least. Hux settles in, and strokes over his cushioned front. Strokes, and nuzzles, and tries to rock them both gently off into sleep. 

“You can’t take the fall for me,” Hux whispers, muffled into fabric.  


“I can, and I will.”  


“Kylo.. you stole my voice.”  


“To _protect you_ ,” the Knight snaps back. “I can take it better than you, and… you… it _means_ something to you.”  


“It means I deserve it,” Hux points out. “And you took away my… you took away my way to feel I got what I deserved.”  


Kylo flinches. He doesn’t breathe. Not for an age. “I just didn’t want you to suffer.”

“Even if I deserved it?”  


“ _You would never_.”  


“So why are you so quick to accept it for me?”  


More silence, and Hux strokes his flank. Kisses his neck, and hurts all over because Kylo does. 

“Because I love you,” Kylo replies, at long last. “And that means I want to keep you safe.”  


“So do I,” Hux answers, wryly.   


“We’re at an impasse. Except for the Force.” Kylo’s tone is slightly smug there, but Hux allows it.   


Only until he can kiss and rub at his neck and cheek. “I’m serious,” he says, even as he lightly tickles some tension out of him. “You don’t deserve what he puts you through. It makes me sick.”

“Yeah, but it’s okay when it’s for you. Makes it easier. I know…” He turns his head, peering back at Hux. “You give me the strength to keep going. No matter what the universe throws at me.”  


Fuck. Mushy shit. Hux laughs, nervously, and kisses the corner of his mouth. “How about we think about ways for you to _not_ need my strength?”

Even. Even if it’s treasonous. Even then.

“…tomorrow?” Kylo begs. “I’m tired, and I hurt, and I just want to rest.”  


“Tomorrow,” Hux agrees. But he’ll plan all through the night. There’s no way that - that - Snoke is _ever_ going to hurt Kylo like this again. Whether or not he fucks up, it’s just not going to happen.  


Kylo protected him, so it’s time now to return the favour. For good.


End file.
